Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Bought by Prudential Financial Inc.

Prudential Financial Inc. raised its holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 6.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 208,037 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,345 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $11,469,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of BALL. Everence Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ball during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $774,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter valued at about $94,861,000. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA increased its stake in shares of Ball by 531,933.3% during the fourth quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA now owns 47,883 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,707,000 after purchasing an additional 47,874 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Ball by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,891,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $104,253,000 after purchasing an additional 36,809 shares during the last quarter. Finally, VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in Ball by 99.5% in the 4th quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 37,719 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,053,000 after buying an additional 18,809 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on BALL shares. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Mizuho raised Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Truist Financial lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $63.30.

Ball Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE BALL opened at $51.45 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $14.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $52.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $57.98. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $48.95 and a 1 year high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. Ball had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. The company had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.78 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.56%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.32%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Profile

Ball Corporation supplies aluminum packaging products for the beverage, personal care, and household products industries in the United States, Brazil, and internationally. The company manufactures and sells aluminum beverage containers to fillers of carbonated soft drinks, beer, energy drinks, and other beverages.